Blurred Lines 1: CHASE
Chapter 86

-Chase-

I shot up from the bed at the incessant ringing of my phone. It's one o'clock in the morning. Carefully, I untangled my limbs from Sofia's, hoping I wouldn't wake her up "What's wrong?" she asked, her voice raspy with sleep.

I reached for my phone, Rafa's name flashed on the screen. "It's Rafa."

"Oh. It's a bad night again," she murmured, pulling the covers closer to her naked body.

These days, Rafa only calls in the middle of the night if he needs a ride home. He'd been in my position for more than a decade, so even when I didn't want to leave the comfort of my bed and the warmth of Sofia's embrace, I stood and pulled on the boxer shorts I'd discarded last night.

Ti be right back. Go back to sleep." I kissed Sofia's forehead.

Tm naked under these sheets," Sofia purred, sliding her hand down my bare chest as I pulled away.

"I know, baby," I groaned, chuckling as I dragged my heavy feet from the temptation I call my fiancee.

Quickly tugging on my shirt and sweatpants from the floor, I slipped out of our room, answering Rafa's call.

"Send me the address, I'm on my way," I said without preamble.

I'm not drunk," Rafa answered. He sounded stressed.

I paused at the second-floor landing of our stairs. "What's wrong?"

To five minutes away from your place. There's been an incident at Elisa's. We need to be in California."

The iron-clad control I had on my temper was slowly slipping away as my eyes swept the damage to Elisa's kitchen. Two-thirds of the kitchen was gone, the scorching California summer heat beating down on my skin, burning me from the outside. On the inside, my blood was running at a high temperature, boiling with rage. From the initial report, an explosion while the kitchen was burning created a massive chunk out of the entire hotel.

Gone was the state-of-the-art kitchen Sofia helped plan. Half of the island survived the blast, cookware and kitchenware were s*a*ter*d everywhere. There were no remnants of the double-door fridge and freezer on the far wall; the wall itself was f*cking gone. Murky water soaked my shoes, water still dripped from the fire sprinklers on the ceiling above me.

The gray walls and ceiling had been replaced with charcoal black. Flames licked their way toward the restaurant and lobby. The upside of the situation, no one got hurt. The kitchen was on the opposite end of the guest rooms, the restaurant and lobby's ceiling will need an overhaul.

I swallowed the bile rising from my throat. Anger flowed through my veins. This hotel was for my daughter. It was that close to my heart. I felt violated, and that made me want to go on a rampage. I wanted to destroy something, anything.

Hearing footsteps headed in my direction, I swallowed all my emotions down until nothing but a passive expression remained on the surface. Someone did this to my building; I'm ninety-nine percent f*cking sure of it. If he's watching somewhere, I won't give him the satisfaction of seeing me lose my cool.

"You good?" Rafa clasped a firm grip on my shoulder.

"They gave you the report?" My tone was calm as the morning breeze. Inside, I wanted to punch a hole in the burned kitchen wall, smash what remained of it to pieces with my fist.

"They're angling for faulty wirings, demands us to submit the papers."

That poked at my restraints, my voice hitching in annoyance. "They're investigating us? They think we did this?"

"It's standard procedure, Chase," Rafa stated calmly, walking further inside the kitchen. Outside, how the f*ck do I even describe this place now?

Silence hovered over us, the water lapping at the shore, and laughter from the seaside sailed into the air, slicing the thick tension clasping my shoulders. The pungent smell of burned metal and plastic overpowered

the salty breeze of the Pacific "How the f*ck did this happen?"

The same question has been bugging me. It was like a war zone. Initial report said it could be faulty wiring, but that was highly unlikely. I will never open a f*cking hotel. I won't let my family spend a holiday on it. That's how meticulous I am with my business. "Do we have security footage?"

Rafa faced me, frowning. It will take a while before we get access to the footage. A week tops. Smoke reached the security office. We need to extract the files from the hard drive." "Something feels off about this," I voiced my frustration, We have tight security in the hotel, or so I thought. Someone was behind this, and I will find out.

"Tell me about it," Rafa shoved his fingers through his hair, his eyes squinting from lack of sleep. We've been working on two cups of coffee since we left Boston. "Think we should bring in Eros on this one?"

I considered it for a moment. The man had a lot on his plate, and I could handle my business on my own. "Let's wait for the footage before dragging him in. Call Joe, have him do a background check on every employee and quest" Joe was a friend who owned a private security and investigation agency. I've been generous to employees, giving them incentives and credits when it's due. Still, human resources have always been a tricky part of the business, and I'm not leaving any stones unturned until I get to the bottom of this.

It wasn't enough that we'd be closed for the next two months. We had to cancel the opening of Elisa's second branch in Long Beach. For the next three days, Rafa and I stayed in California to deal with all the paperwork, oversee the refund, and rebooking of the events for both hotels.

We were saving face. The quest uploaded their horror experiences on social media with videos of the actual fire as support - which spread like wildfire on the internet. A few had been lenient with their words, but a lot speculated our hotel was unsafe; we lacked security and fire safety procedures. This incident's butterfly effect has reached our hotels in Brazil.

My marketing team doubled their efforts to prevent further damage to our reputation.

I missed Elise's dance recital on Tuesday. That's the most heartbreaking part of my job. I cannot just up and leave, let my team handle all the work. Breaking my promise to Elise was the toughest decision I had to make

this week.

"Is she mad at me?" I asked Sofia over a video call. I just finished watching Elise's dance recital. She was like a true princess in her pink tutu, dancing gracefully along with her friends.

"No, just sad. She'd been practicing that pirouette in the end for you," Sofia said. She was in our walk-in closet, applying nighttime cream on her face. This is the part where I am f*cking grateful that Sofia decided to be a full-time mom. She'd been holding our family together whenever s*it like this occurred.

"She was amazing." I murmured wistfully, running a hand over my face.

I need a f*cking drink.

Entering the kitchen of my suite, I took a beer from the fridge. I brought it to the balcony, the calm wind soothing my aching muscles. Rafa and I came back to the hotel today along with Joe. I wanted him to thoroughly investigate where the fire started and what caused the explosion.

"I feel bad I missed her recital," I admitted, sighing in defeat.

"It was an accident and Elise understands her daddy has a very important job. And you didn't mean to break your promise to her."

I plonked down on the outdoor couch, taking a pull of my beer. "Thank you, baby. I don't know what I'll do without you."

"You don't have to thank me, Chase. We're a team." Her eyes met mine, studying me. "You look exhausted. What happened with Joe?"

"His initial assumption was as good as mine. Someone started the fire."

Her mouth curled into a frown. "Who could've done that? People could've gotten hurt."

I shook my head. Joe's background investigation on my employees was a dead end. His team started going over the guest list one by one yesterday, and so far, nothing unusual.

"Could it be a business competitor?" her tone was careful.

That's highly unlikely "I might have f*cked around, but never with business. Montiero Holdings was as clean as it could get. Even the county sheriff and fire chief saw that we went through proper licensing We've raised prices in bids, but I didn't take it further than that. Making enemies in business was not a habit of mine, especially now that I have Sofia and Elise. "Don't worry about me. You looked exhausted yourself, baby." Planning a wedding does that "She rolled her eyes, playfully pouting her lip To chuckled. For someone who worked in PR Sofia surely hated planning her own wedding. "Should we find a replacement for Todd?"

Todd is her wedding planner friend. The guy was meticulous with every detail but good at his job.

It's not Todd that's wearing me out," she murmured, rising from the vanity towards the bed. "It's Clara." "Oh da*n." Mom can be a handful when she's excited. And since Sofia was like a daughter to her, she wanted this wedding to be spotless Sofia slid on the bed, pulling the covers up to her chest. miss you," she said, lying on her side.

Her eyes say everything she refuses to voice. She wanted to be here with me, help me in every way she could She already spoke to my marketing manager, offering her insight about damage control. And I love her even more for that. I miss you too, baby," I said, hoping I could kiss her right now. "I'll be home soon."